The sound of rifle fire could be heard all around Michael while he was cooking a grenade. He was the only one present who knew how Lucas moved. He lobbed the grenade directly into a path of his friend but he immediately somersaulted over it, leaving explosion in his wake. He continued sprinting, dropping one of his comrades with a pierce that went straight through the heart of the unlucky woman.

“Fuck” Michael grumbled as he lobbed three grenades one after another finally managing to force Lucas backwards as he did a back flip. Finally connecting the dots, Lucas started scanning through the squads that were first responders when Michael activated alarm. That pause was enough for highly trained colleagues as storm of bullets instantly tried to suppress Lucas while two from every squad prepared to cook the grenades. Lucas went spinning, slamming into a trooper dangerously close to Michael’s position. Michael was well aware he was the target and didn’t rate his chances very well if Lucas managed to find him. He lobbed a grenade once again, just as Lucas dropped another one of the soldiers with a deep gash on the chest that sent the poor soul thrashing in pain. Moving to the left, Lucas found another one of the troopers and let his sword swing, connecting with the flank and disabling another one while immediately changing his location with a sprint that looked almost like a teleportation. Poor troopers once again tried to correct their aim, but he was just too fast. Two more men paid the price before Michael lobbed a grenade that managed to stop Lucas and force him back into empty space where they tried to contain him. Troopers aimed once again and grenades went flying but if Lucas found any of that threatening, he certainly didn’t show it. With a quick somersault he found himself in front of one of the grenadiers, killing unlucky man with a slash over the throat.

“It will be a massacre if heavies don’t arrive soon” Michael analyzed the situation hoping all the lost lives were not in vain. He briefly considered suggesting retreat, but that would give Lucas time to escape them. He then quickly considered maybe activating their assault stance, but the question of hitting Lucas remained, and they would lose their suppressing capabilities. All of that didn’t prevent Michael for switching to assault himself and after a mumbled “Storm the front” he immediately gave a mental command to change the type of bullets that his rifle fired to piercing rounds. He prepared a grenade, only skill that was shared between his offensive and defensive stances, lobbing it once again right at the path Lucas. Angry snarl was heard as Lucas once again flew over the grenade and stopped to once again try to find Michael. Leveraging his extensive training and Perception he aimed and fired a burst. Bullets unfortunately weren’t fast enough to hit Lucas anywhere vital, but for the first time he took some damage. Once again Michael heard a snarl of anger and Lucas continued to run all over the place, venting his anger on another trooper, dropping the man with a stab in the guts. Hoping field medics on the scene were good, Michael continued tracking Lucas, now spinning to catch another one of his comrades, this time a woman whose name Michael couldn’t remember, and slamming into her shoulder and almost taking the whole arm with momentum. He disappeared from Michael’s sight, going behind wall of some house. Michael immediately went after him, hoping that he will finally manage to corner his friend and correct the mistake that he made on the night of the ambush. Careful about the ambush, he lobbed a grenade first and stormed in a second after hearing the boom, immediately opening fire. Bullets flew through the empty space, impacting the house that was somewhat distance from him. Panicked, Michael immediately started his retreat, but it was too little, too late. Dropping from a roof, Lucas landed right in front of him and Michael caught only a quick glimpse of red before pain overtook him.

“You took 321 points of damage”

“You are bleeding. You take 10 points of damage every 20 seconds”

He let a scream, rolling on the ground, trying to extinguish the pain that coursed somewhere from his right arm into his whole body.

“You are healed for 150 points”

“You are no longer bleeding”

After what Michael thought was eternity, pain subsided and he looked up to find Ricky, a field medic he knew from before the event that led their unit down this path. He stood over him, syringe in his green glowing hands. Michael quickly checked his status, confirming he lost almost half of his health.

“What’s happening now?” Michael immediately asked.

“Heavies arrived just in time to save your lives. For now, the line is still holding, and we even managed to push him a little bit toward the prison. We are hoping to contain him there, because right now heavies cannot use their full tool set due to collateral” Ricky gave him a lengthy explanation.

Michael just nodded in responded and got up, spotting where the fighting was. He ran back to the site and arrived just in time to witness a grizzly scene. Lucas spin skill, the one he learned just before the dungeon and for which Michael still cursed himself for allowing to happen, connected square into the chest of one of the heavies. Giant of the man screamed loudly and sickening crunches could be heard, as his whole ribcage fractured under the enormous momentum Lucas had. A quick slash over the throat send the heavy next to unlucky one down too. Lucas, his face now showing immense anger, didn’t wait a second, sliding between the legs of the third one, only a quick glow of red reveling Michael what caused the man to scream to high heavens as Lucas’s sword made contact with his crotch. After finishing his slide, his sword made way to the thigh of the heavy that had enough bad luck to finish in front of Lucas, severing a femoral artery judging by the spray of blood that spurted out of the wound. Michael was flabbergasted, seeing as Lucas dropped half of the most elite soldiers his units possessed without breaking a sweat. The rest of heavies hesitated for a moment before returning to the fight, this time not holding back. Highly destructive skills started flying, every miss doing massive damage to the landscape all around them, sending bodies of both troopers that hadn’t managed to get out of the way and civilians that were sheltering in houses around them and finally Michael saw Lucas struggling, even taking a devastating skill as a molten ball of what looked like plasma straight to the chest and flying a good 20 meters before, crashing through the walls of what looked like a warehouse. Heavies immediately stopped their barrage, in their brains drilled the instructions to avoid collaterals whenever they could. Michael could feel the palpable tension in the air as every soldier present carefully approached the site, heavies in front, where they saw Lucas landed. As soon as they entered, they knew he escaped, seeing as the door that was leading to the street on the opposite side of the warehouse was open. Everyone immediately advanced forward following a trail of blood and clear signs of someone struggling to move alongside it. They moved and moved and Michael realized about half the way they were heading to the outskirts, where Hangman’s row stood, an old building in which death row inmates were counting their last days. When they arrived at the building, they found Lucas laying and struggling to breathe. Grateful that they were outside civilian zone, Michael hold his breath while heavies approached their opponent. As one of them approached to put the end to Lucas’s life, he sprang into action, slashing the knee of his would be executioner. The rest of heavies immediately opened fire, highly devastating skills once again flaring all over the place. Lucas weaved and evaded and Michael spotted what he was doing. And soon did the last heavy, as he saw his skill hit the man that was just trying to get up after the knee slash, exploding the head of the poor woman like a ripe watermelon. Reeling back in shock, the man didn’t have time to react as Lucas sword went all the way through his guts, Lucas twisting to make sure that he was incapacitated. Pulling his sword, he stared at the troopers surrounding him and everywhere around Michael something broke. Soldiers where dropping their weapons left and right, running for their lives as Lucas ran with them, inserting into the group to sow death. No matter how much Michael tried to rally them, nobody was listening on and soon enough Lucas had him in his sights after killing another two routing troopers. He immediately started spinning and Michael felt his flesh tore as Lucas’s sword went through his flank, his quick thinking saving his life as he jumped immediately after Lucas spotted him.

“You took 210 points of damage”

“Why?” Lucas asked while Michael tried to get up, running on the last reserves of health.

“Because order is needed and you and your lot are danger to humanity” Michael responded.

“My lot?”

“Power hungry idiots, always chasing levels and progression”

Lucas looked incredulous. “You know that is how the System works, right?” he asked

Michael decided he is finished with the conversation, not keen on sharing the secrets his unit knew about the System. Lucas starred at him just a second longer, those glowing eyes piercing Michael worse that any wound his sword made today. Lucas sighed and raised his sword, aiming to finish this.

“Get up, soldier” a woman’s voice boomed everywhere from once as Carmen emerged from somewhere behind him, her whip already on his way to disarm Lucas. Not the one to be caught unaware, he immediately dodged. Carmen unleashed a fierce flurry of strike, Lucas just barely managing evasion. Sure enough, one caught him, dropping one of his gauntlets on the ground and having him hiss in pain. His back against the wall of the prison, Lucas jumped over it and Carmen immediately went after him. Michael just sighed, realizing just how outclassed he is and just happy to survive. Seeing as the rest of his troopers were rallied, courtesy of Carmen, he joined them as they retreat back to base in good order and somber mood.